Waking Up
by Suga Sei
Summary: Starts Sei/Youko, hits everyone else. Starts after the OVA's.


Alright folks, you know the drill. I do NOT own MSGM, not the characters, not the idea, nada. If I did, I probably wouldn't be writing fanfiction. I'd be doing us all a favor and translating those books for America. But I'm not. It's a pity. TT. Hope you all like it. Updates may be sporadic. What can I say? I'm busy.

This is NOT a one shot.

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Where, where am I

Chapter 1

_Where, where am I? _Darkness…

The first thing the sandy blonde was aware of, was that her head was pounding violently. Little white flashes of light danced behind her eyes, which only seemed to increase her discomfort with every pound of her head. The second thing she was aware of, was that she was not in her own room. Gray eyes squinched and blinked, trying to get her bearings as she attempted to remember where she was and how she got there. It occurred to her suddenly that she was quite nude, and she was not alone. A moment of panic was quickly followed by frantic groping of her surroundings.

_Tell me this isn't happening! Satou, what have you gotten yourself into this time?! _ She scolded herself severely. It dawned on her that the figure next to her was fortunately female. For a moment she smiled and thought how well things probably went for the woman to still be in bed with her. Carefully, she ran her hands under the sheets and felt soft, warm skin glide under her fingers like silk. The figure was slightly smaller than she was, and well proportioned. _Whoo! Talk about luck. Something tells me I had a lot of fun last night! I wonder who she is…? Could it be?_ Her breath caught and held in her chest. _Last_ _night, I was… what was I doing? The reception! Rei's wedding reception. That's right. Oh man, I had a lot to drink. I was dancing… that's right I was dancing with – _

"Yu…mi?" the word broken and hesitant on her lips.

Light had begun to peek through the curtains, and the figure rolled over to face her. Dark eyes fluttered open and quickly focused on Sei. A slow, languid smile crossed the young woman's face as she realized her bed mate had not fled in the night. Black hair fell like a curtain over her cheek, cut off right at the jaw line.

Former Rosa Chenesis and current Tokyo University law student Mizuno Youko was staring right at Sei with unchecked adoration on her face.

"Good morning," Youko kissed the horrified Sei on the lips in what could only be a lovers greeting, "what were you saying?"

Sei scrambled to collect herself lest she humiliate and hurt her friend. "Oh, I said, 'why don't you and me go somewhere and get some breakfast?'" She silently crossed her fingers hoping Youko hadn't been awake enough to understand what she had actually said.

"What a great idea!" Youko practically sparkled in a way that broke Sei's heart as she realized the woman was taking this as the beginning of more than what it was.

"Uh, hey, I need to use the bathroom real quick. Why don't you get ready while I clean up?"

"Oh, then why don't I follow you and help you with that?" Youko smiled seductively.

"Oh, oh no! I couldn't let you do that. After all, I don't, uh, want things to get started up again before we've had a chance to refresh ourselves and get something to eat!" _Yeah, that's it… just make it to the bathroom. Then you can drown yourself in the toilet._

Youko let out a semi-disappointed sigh. "Alright, you win. Just hurry up though, I want a warm shower too, you know?"

"Yeah, thanks. I'll hurry," Sei practically ran to the bathroom and shut the door quickly behind her. She leaned her forehead against the door, being careful not to give into the urge to bang it against the wall.

How did this happen? Why on earth did she sleep with her best friend last night? What had possessed her to do such a thing?

_What's more_, thought Sei to herself, _how the hell do I get out of this?_

Sei was trying very hard to remember what exactly lead up to the predicament she found herself in now, sitting in Youko's car as they drove to a small restaurant downtown. She had managed to remember being at the party, getting upset, getting drunk, wandering off in a dark mood… Youko had spoken with her, comforted her, and then…

Sei shut her eyes hard trying to keep the images of what followed out of her mind. For the life of her, she never understood quite why she never saw Youko in that light. She knew Youko had loved her since their first years in high school. But for some reason, she never felt for Youko a fraction of what the other girl felt for her.

She's beautiful, she's intelligent, she's ambitious, she loves me… and yet, even last night, when we kissed, it was as though I was kissing my sister. Sei grimaced at the thought.

"Are you not feeling well, Sei? You really did have a lot to drink last night. Do you think eating is that great of an idea?"

"Strangely enough, yes, I think it's the smartest thing I could do right now." _Because it keeps us in public and away from awkward conversations about where we go from here._

Sei glanced at Youko out of the corner of her eye trying to figure out where her head really was. I _don't want to hurt her anymore than I already will have… but I also don't want to drag this out longer than necessary._

On Youko's part, she had been watching Sei's reaction nervously since she woke up_. It was so wonderful, so fulfilling. Yet I can't help but wonder if it was the right thing. We were so close last night, closer than ever. The way she touched me, the way she kissed me. I always hoped it would be like that. But now… _

Now Sei was scared. Youko could see it in her face. Of all the years she had known Satou Sei, she had never seen this kind of hesitation and uncertainty. Sure, it was there when she had to convince her about Shiori leaving, but this was different. _Regret? Oh, god, I hope that's not what that is. _Youko could deal with a lot of things, but if Sei actually regretted their time together last night, she wasn't sure how she would handle it.

Their reverie was broken as Youko pulled into a parking garage near the restaurant. "This place has the best yakisoba anywhere," Youko hoped a light conversation would be just what they needed to break the uncomfortable silence. Sei seemed to relax a little, "Since when were you a soba connoisseur?"

"Since I started law school and seemed to have forgotten how to cook for my self," Youko smiled. There's the Sei she needed to have around right now. That's the Sei she loved.

They seated themselves and the waitress came over. "Would you like to start with some tea?"

"Yes, please. Could you bring some Oolong tea if you have any?" Youko ordered for both of them.

"Certainly," and the waitress dismissed herself to go fetch the requested tea.

"Oolong? Since when did you buy Chinese tea?" Sei raised a skeptical eyebrow.

"Since I found out that it helps a hang over," Youko shot back at her.

"Ah, then it's just what the doctor ordered," Sei smiled knowingly_. Good, I'm not the only one with a pounding head. Youko is just like Sachiko in that way, they won't give you the chance to catch them in their weakness. _

The waitress came back and set their tea up for them. She quickly pulled out her tab, "Would you like to order now, or would you like some more time to decide?"

Sei looked a touch startled for a moment when she realized she and Youko spent the time bantering and not even glimpsing at the menu. "Of, of course, give me just a minute… hey, Youko, you've been here before, what do you suggest?"

Youko looked at her slightly irritated, "I already told you they have the best yakisoba in town!" then, to the waitress, "We'll take two bowls of chicken yakisoba, please,"

The waitress smiled and bowed quickly, turning to turn the order in quickly.

"I sure hope you're right,"

"About what?"

"About this being the best yakisoba in Tokyo,"

"Why's that?"

"Because I never was one for yakisoba," Sei snickered at the look on Youko's face, "You seemed to have picked up Yumi's habit of conveying your emotions through your face, Mizuno."

Something about the statement struck Sei as immediately inappropriate. Youko quickly gained control of her expression and turned somewhat sullen, "Yumi again? That girl is never far out of your mind, is she Sei? No, don't apologize. She's why we're here in the first place with this awkward silence hanging between us like a wet blanket."

Sei wondered for a minute how it got to this point so fast. The next thought was, _Yumi's the reason why we're here? Ugh, just what happened last night? Was I really so plowed I can't remember? Or was it just so horrible?_ Sei cringed at the last thought. _ Are there people I need to apologize to, aside from Youko? _

"When will you give up on her, Sei? Are you so deeply in love with her that you cannot see anything, anyone else? What is it about her the draws people to her so fiercely?" Youko's last words were bitter, and even she knew it.

"You can't blame Yumi for how other's feel about her," Sei began to try to reason, until she saw the tears start to slowly spill from Youko's eyes. "Youko, I'm sorry. Really, I never wanted this to happen,"

Tears spilled even faster and Youko looked away from Sei as she tried to gain her composure, "That's just it, Sei. You never wanted it to happen, no matter how much I did."

Just then, the waitress came up with their order. She hesitated when she noticed the gravity of the conversation.

"I'm sorry, miss. Can we get these to go?" Sei suddenly wanted to jump in a hole and die.

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A/N: This will not be solely a Sei/Youko fic. This is the beginning of what I've planned to be a long fic that hopefully everyone can enjoy. I won't give you any idea as to the pairings, you'll just have to wait and see. But I will say I'm going to try to create something for everyone while keeping my take on how I think these characters will have matured. Please feel free to read and review.


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